Jordan Lynch breaks own NCAA record in NIU rout

DEKALB — Jordan Lynch may have had his worst passing day, but he more than compensated with the best rushing day by any quarterback in NCAA history.

Lynch ran for 321 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries Tuesday night to lead No. 20 Northern Illinois to a 33-14 victory over Western Michigan.

Lynch broke his own FBS record of 316 yards set Oct. 19 against Central Michigan.

Lynch now has 1,755 yards, 60 shy of his NCAA record for a quarterback set last year. He also became the fifth quarterback in history to have 5,000 career yards passing and 4,000 rushing and he did so despite never starting a game until his junior season.

Cameron Stingily ran for only 49 yards on 14 carries, but that was enough to get the converted linebacker over 1,000 and join Lynch as the first Huskie tandem to top 1,000.

On a chilly 17-degree night with 16 mph winds and a smattering of snow on the ground, Lynch completed only 5 of 17 passes for 39 yards, but the Huskies (12-0, 8-0 MAC West) wrapped up their first undefeated regular season as a major college team .

NIU, ranked No. 14 in the BCS standings, kept its Fiesta Bowl hopes alive and heads to Detroit for the Dec. 6 Mid-American Conference title game for the fourth consecutive season.

NIU started somewhat slowly against Western Michigan (1-11), leading only 7-0 after one quarter on a 10-yard Lynch pass to Juwan Brescacin.

The Broncos tied the score at 7, but NIU quickly began to pull away, with Lynch running wild. He had 200 yards on his first 13 carries midway through the first quarter on a day when ESPN columnist Gene Wojciechowski put Lynch No. 2 on his Heisman list, noting Lynch has more yards passing than his No. 4 choice (Alabama’s AJ McCarron) and more yards rushing that Alabama’s T.J. Yeldon.

“Jordan Lynch, I think, is the best player in college football,” said Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck, who compared Lynch to Doug Flutie. “He makes every single player around him better. He is Northern Illinois. He is what Northern Illinois is about. He is the best football player in the country. That’s what the Heisman Trophy is about. He deserves to be in New York, and it didn’t take this game to prove it to me.”

NIU led 20-7 at the half when the Broncos missed a couple of chances to make it a game. Western Michigan finished the half by missing a field goal on its next-to-last drive, then dropping a third-down TD pass and getting a field goal blocked on the last play of the half.

Western Michigan recovered its own onside kickoff to start the second half, but NIU held on fourth-and-1 on an incomplete pass and then never looked back again.

The Huskies finished with 425 yards rushing on 54 carries. Western Michigan ran for 93 yards on 35 carries.